Turning it around?
The Kings will try to avoid a season first tonight: three consecutive regulation losses. They're 0-2-2 in their last four, one short of the season-worst five-game losing streak they had in late October/early November, and a loss tonight will leave them with a bad taste for the next few days. The Kings don't play again until Friday against Phoenix.
Columbus is 10-5-1 at home this season and has won five in a row at home. Steve Mason, a 20-year-old rookie, has had a good run in goal for the Blue Jackets. He has allowed two or fewer goals in each of his last six starts but hasn't received much offensive support. Here's what Terry Murray said, heading into tonight's game...
MURRAY: ``Obviously we didn't win the last two, but the game in Detroit... The bottom line is that we want to win every game, and there's a lot of things coming out of that game that we need to continue to talk about. Looking at that game, we need to be more persistent in our execution and and performing the job as individual players. I saw little breakdowns, on each of those goals, that maybe were a result of trying to do more than we should have on those plays. You just have to trust yourself and your teammates and things will work out there. We had a couple days of good practice to look at things and work on things.''
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About the bloggers
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Pretty much says it all. Nice interview Rich.
Just don't play LaBarbaraBush ever again ,will be a step in the right direction.No problem going with 3 lines in fact preffered,but they cannot hold back,they must be aggressive. GO KINGS GO!
Brassard is out for the year. That's a HUGE loss for the Jackets, as he was really playing like a top line center should... as a rookie. Think Kopitar two years ago.
Mason is playing VERY well. He was very good against the Kings, but LaBarbera was better that night (Oh, the irony... and we go back to Quick tonight. LOL)
So, it should be a good game. With Brassard, I would think the Jackets would play a solid home game. Without Brassard, only time will tell.
Who will be playing with O'Sullivan and Kopitar in the third period of THIS game? LOL.
If we bring the same effort tonight as in D we will get the win- Our offensive chances have really started to pile up- in Buffalo we just did not get the bounces but in D we were all over them until we went to prevent the win defense in the last 8 min- keep the faith-this team is right on the cusp - a little more consistency - some timely stops and were a playoff team- the bottom of the west is going to be grouped within 8 or 9 pts the rest of the yr so we just stay close - the bottom line is we need to get at least 1pt in all our road games - tie ot loss or win
Wow.
Brassard separated his shoulder DURING a fight.
I'd put that one in the "fighting is bad for hockey" bin alongside Deadmarsh and Fedoryk.
It seriously damages the argument that fighting helps protect the skilled players.
Who says Ivanans shouln't be in the lineup???
Turning it around? The Kings played fairly well against San Jose, New York and Buffalo. Ryan Miller was the difference in Buffalo. LaBarbera was the difference in San Jose and New York.
The problem (once again) in L.A. is the goaltender. Quick looks promising, but he's in for an uphill climb. LaBarbera just looks more and more like Cloutier with each passing game.